Longevity is powered by Vocal creators. You support Kayla W. by reading, sharing and tipping stories... more

Longevity is powered by Vocal.Vocal is a platform that provides storytelling tools and engaged communities for writers, musicians, filmmakers, podcasters, and other creators to get discovered and fund their creativity.

How does Vocal work?Creators share their stories on Vocal’s communities. In return, creators earn money when they are tipped and when their stories are read.

How do I join Vocal?Vocal welcomes creators of all shapes and sizes. Join for free and start creating.

24-Hour Urine Collection Diet (Day Two of Three)

Continuing On with My Temporary, Restrictive Diet

If you're just now tuning into my so-called "24-Hour Urine Collection Diet" series, I highly recommend checking out day one. In that blog post, I go into great detail about what the aforementioned diet is and why I need to stick to it. That said, if you aren't keen on going through the trouble of going back and reading day one, I'll give you the run-down.

Basically, with all of my recent health issues, I wanted to have my stress hormones tested. After consulting my doctor, we made the decision to do so through a 24-hour urine collection (which is exactly what it sounds like). We chose this test specifically because it is able to test VMA, Metanephrines, and 5-HIAA. When testing these three things, however, you need to be careful about what you eat before and during the test. For that reason, I was ordered to exclude the following foods from my diet for two days beforehand, as well as the day of testing: bananas, plums, kiwis, caffeinated beverages, chocolate, vanilla, nuts (especially walnuts), avocados, tomatoes, and eggplants.

As I said in my last blogpost, "being a pescatarian who doesn't eat dairy, gluten, soy, corn, zucchini, cucumbers, and peanuts, preparing food required a bit of planning." Even so, I managed three days without banana, chocolate, vanilla, nuts, and avocados. In part one, I went through my first day eating this way. In this part two, I'll be going through the second day. If you're interested, please keep reading!

Let's be honest, I've been on a bit of a pancake kick lately. And by a bit, I mean a lot. Thus, it was no surprise that breakfast on day one and day two were both largely constituted by these fluffy, God-given delights. The base stayed the same (1/4 cup oat flour, 2 tbsp coconut flour, 2 eggs, 1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk, 1 tsp baking stevia, 1/2 tsp baking powder, and a pinch of pink Himalayan salt). The toppings (Walden Farms cinnamon raisin "peanut butter" and sautéed red delicious apple with baking stevia and cinnamon) stayed about the same. My "post-breakfast snack," you could call it, changed.

In part one, I explained how, because I couldn't eat avocados, I was unable to make my recent obsession, avocado energy balls. And so, on the first day, I ended up combining mashed Japanese sweet potato, Vega coconut protein and greens, and coconut flour, before rolling those three basic ingredients into snack-sized balls. The second day, I worked along the same brainwave, combining: about 1/2 cup of mashed Japanese sweet potato, 2 tbsp of coconut flour, and 1 tbsp of black chia seeds. After these ingredients were incorporated thoroughly, I rolled them into balls and enjoyed the entire batch as a "post-breakfast snack."

Lunch time usually equals oatmeal time, for me. This day was no exception. I cooked up a batch containing: 3/4 cup of quick oats, 1-1/2 cups of water, about 1/2 tbsp of ground flax seed, the majority of a large red delicious apple (diced and sautéed with baking stevia and cinnamon), extra baking stevia, extra cinnamon, ginger, turmeric, black pepper, and pink Himalayan salt. Once the oats were done cooking and had been removed from the heat, I stirred in half a scoop of Vega coconut almond protein and greens. Then, I topped the oats with the remaining apple, a spoonful of Walden Farms cinnamon raisin "peanut butter," hemp hearts, black chia seeds, and unsweetened shredded coconut.

As per usual, lunch didn't fill me all the way up. And so, I followed it up with a serving of Yoso plain unsweetened coconut yogurt mixed together with half a scoop of Vega coconut almond protein and greens, as well as my daily hot coconut oil drink. I explained in part one of this series that, lately, I've been ending every lunch with some sort of hot beverage containing coconut oil. On this day, I had my usual one teaspoon or so of extra virgin coconut oil, one heaped teaspoon of decaf instant coffee, one teaspoon of Krisda stevia sweetener, a shake of pumpkin pie spice, and hot water. It was just what I need, and it held me over until supper came around.

Because I had meal-prepped earlier in the week, supper on night two was about the same as on night one. As a starter, I had a big salad containing baby spinach, red delicious apple, pepitas, and prepared yellow mustard. And then, as the main course, I had a recent obsession of mine: sautéed onion, garlic, celery, white mushrooms, green cabbage, red cabbage, and flaked light tuna (all cooked in turmeric, ginger, black pepper, and pink Himalayan salt). With that, I was satiated and satisfied. Thus, I was done eating until day three rolled around.